The present disclosure relates to power semiconductor modules, and specifically, to power semiconductor modules including bidirectional power switching elements used in, for example, power converters.
Power converters are used in various applications, for example, to drive industrial motors, household electric motors, etc., and power semiconductor modules each including a power switching element integrated together with its control element into one semiconductor package are used.
A known example of conventional power semiconductor modules is an inverter module using an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) as a power switching element. The inverter is a circuit in which a direct-current power supply obtained by rectifying and smoothing an alternating-current power supply is inverted by a power switching element to an alternating current having an arbitrary frequency (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-133768).
Unlike such an inverter, a matrix converter for directly converting an alternating-current power supply to a three-phase alternating current having an arbitrary frequency is used in efforts to improve the energy efficiency of power converters. Since the inverter switches the direct-current power supply, unidirectional power switching elements may be used respectively on a high side and a low side in the inverter. However, in the case of the matrix converter, an alternating-current power supply is directly switched to control an alternate current load, and thus a bidirectional power switching element and a driver for controlling the bidirectional power switching element are required. The bidirectional power switching element can be implemented by, for example, connecting two-element reverse blocking IGBTs inversely parallel. To the gate of each IGBT, a control signal based on the emitter of the IGBT is applied, thereby performing switching control (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-218205).